Rumor: Phil Jackson/Dwight Howard Package Deal To Brooklyn Nets

Ever since his retirement from coaching following the 2010-2011 NBA season, 11 time champion Phil Jackson has been rumored to want back into the coaching ranks, with his most obvious destinationbeing the rebuilt New York Knicks.

While we all know that Phil likes to take over the reigns of already stacked rosters like the Jordan/Pippen led Bulls and the Shaq/Kobe/Gasol led Lakers, there’s no denying that Jackson would bring a more cerebral and disciplined approach to the Knickerbockers, a much needed yet sorely lacking trait from the wild child antics of Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, and JR Smith on the current Knicks roster.

But with the Knicks close to finalizinga 5 year deal to resign the defensive minded coach Mike Woodson, who is a quality NBA coach in his own right, where does that leave the Zen Master when it comes to getting back into the coaching ranks?

While it looks like the Mike Brown saga in Los Angeles may be short-lived if the Lakers lose out to the Thunder in the 2nd Round, I doubt we will see a Kobe/Phil reunion for the 2012-2013 season. One destination that has begun popping up on the radar recently is the Knicks rival NJ Nets, who are making their improbable move to Brooklyn to play at the brand spankin newBarclays Center for next season.

If you remember, the Knicks GM duped the Knicks fan base into thinking Lebron James was coming to play his home games at MSG before settling on Ama’re Stoudemire in the Summer of 2010. Then, he overturned the stagnant NY roster by trading half of the team for superstar Carmelo Anthony, despite persistent rumors that Melo was a horrific teammate, before losing out on elite level PG Deron Williams, who was eventually traded from Utah to the NJ Nets.

After another losing season in 2012, Williams will hit the free agent market this Summer without the Nets somehow securing the services of another top flight free agent to play alongside him when they move to Brooklyn. While Gerald Wallace is a nice compliment, he’s more of a 3rd option in the Andre Iguodala mold, rather that the one-two star power of Stat and Melo. All along, Williams has stated that he wants big man Dwight Howard or he will likely go back home to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.

Howard’s odd decision to re-up one more season in Orlando does complicate things, but according to some reliable sources in the NYC tri-state area, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and minority owner Jay-Z are hard at work trying to secure the services of both Howard and Jackson to embark on the Nets initial season’s journey in NYC’s biggest borough, the basketball starvedBrooklyn.

One of Jackson’s former star players Scottie Pippen recently commentedthat he thinks Phil is close to making a comeback and has no doubt that he will definitely coach again soon. The Dwight Howard saga is more complicated since he will have to be acquired by a trade until after the next season. But with Nets big man Brook Lopez. a key trade piece, expected to be 100% healthy by the start of the 2012-2013 season, a trade isn’t entirely out of the question. Would a roster of Howard, Williams, Wallace and/or and improving rookie MarShon Brooks be enough to lure Phil Jackson out of retirement?

Will Dwight and Phil take their talents to Brooklyn? Some experts seem to think it’s possible…….

Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.